Check it out … I suspect someone was playing at a casino and watching how the table-embedded auto-shufflers work when they thought: How awesome would it be if you could press a button, and instead of getting a new deck, you got snacks and cocktails? The new GameBar, from the not-quite-sueably named Playerati, features a hidden, refrigerated snack bar that serves up refreshments at the table. A much better way to get everyone a round of chilled Tuaca shots than waiting for cocktail service. Press the button again for the electronic poker dumbwaiter to retract until the next round.

Theoretically can also be used to serve up weapons and drugs. Load the thing with semi-automatic handguns, and never fear home-game robbery again, knowing that you can arm your table from your game’s hidden (refrigerated) weapons cache at a moment’s notice. Good place to hide the bank, too … not to mention little sandwiches.

Ask yourself why all tables don’t have secret refrigerated compartments at Playerati.com.

[h/t @alcanthang]

LAS VEGAS–This post woulda been much more timely and sensible had it appeared a week ago, but hey, sometimes what happens in Vegas takes a little while before it becomes public. Anyhow, the last day of the World Series is the point where all unofficial media outlets have to take a back seat in terms of coverage. Understandable considering that, for the first time in nearly seven weeks, all eyes are focussed on a single table … and it just won’t be possible for all interested parties to sit ringside until Brobdingnagian dominance forces Harrah’s to make structural changes to the TV stage.

So that left most of us doing what you were doing … following some rather exciting coverage of a relatively unexciting, straightforward final table on PokerNews while listening to play-by-play on Bluff Radio (which was being piped into the media room) while watching live-camera coverage on a flat-screen monitor.

The media room, anytime there was an all-in and a call. CardPlayer decides not to run with the hedline: ESPN blogger violates Rio chair-standing policy

Actually, large-scale LCD screens were sprinkled throughout the hallways and the Amazon itself, so we could watch the overhead cam pretty much anywhere we went. We just couldn’t camp out for more than a few minutes near the real action. But that was fine by me, because we’ll all get to see The Jerry Yang Show soon enough on TV, and the World Series really is about so much more than just poker. As it turned out, there was lots of fun stuff going on away from the table that provided a little insight into how the poker industry really works …

More…

Just got back from my beloved 7-Eleven, where I continue to pay back the cost of my college education in the form of coffee, cigarettes, and Cheeseburger Big Bites. Always on the lookout for something different, I happened to notice a [not-so-] new beverage called TILT. At first I didn’t even realize I was looking at the beer case — but this semi-poker themed product actually has more alcohol than beer, more caffeine than Mountain Dew, and a little ginseng and guarana to boot. Mmmm … who says uppers and downers don’t mix?

We’ve previously speculated that energy drinks might-could be the next poker. Too much profit in an exploding, arguably addictive market for the Feds not to take notice. And indeed, Anheuser-Busch, the makers of TILT, are starting to feel the government heat from 30 states’ attorneys general and the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

ALT HED: War on Energy Drinks?